City Developments Limited (CDL), Singapore’s leading green developer and long-standing advocate for sustainability, has emerged as the top ranked company in Singapore and Asia (excluding Japan) in the Corporate Knights Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. The results of this annual ranking were announced today in Switzerland, at the Davos World Economic Forum.
CDL is also the only Singapore company to be listed on this global benchmark for the fourth consecutive year. Its ranking improved from 62nd position in 2012 to 52nd place this year; making it the number one ranked company out of three from Singapore.
Mr Kwek Leng Joo, Managing Director of CDL said, “We are honoured and humbled to be a listed on the Global 100 for the fourth consecutive year and to plant Singapore’s flag on the global map for sustainability. Our improved rankings in Asia and at home, reflect our convictions that it is essential to integrate sustainability into our corporate DNA and operations. This recognition puts us amongst best-in-class corporations worldwide and spurs us to improve on our sustainability efforts. More importantly, our inclusion in the rankings means that Singapore is represented amongst top global sustainability cities.”
One of the key areas that CDL has been championing is in dedicated sustainability reporting. It was the first local company in 2008 to publish a report that was successfully checked by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), using its G3 Guidelines. GRI is the world’s most widely-used sustainability reporting framework for organisations to measure and report their economic, environmental and social performance.
CDL’s Sustainability Report 2012, titled “Ideas, Initiatives, Impacts”, was the first GRI-checked Level A+ Sustainability Report using the GRI G3.1 guidelines and the Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement (CRESS) successfully published by a Singapore property developer. CRESS was only released by GRI in September 2011 and the performance indicators included are better tailored to the real estate and construction industry for enhanced relevance and transparency. This includes areas such as building and material certification, CO2 emissions as well as health and safety issues. The aim is to help organisations improve transparency of reporting disclosure with tools that can better communicate the impacts of the industry. CDL’s current and previous Sustainability Reports are available online at www.cdl.com.sg.
Corporate Knights, an independent Toronto-based media and investment research company, was recently recognised as the world’s most credible corporate sustainability ranking. The Global 100, launched in 2005, consists of the 100 top-performing stocks worldwide on a range of sector-specific sustainability metrics and is considered the most extensive corporate sustainability assessment in existence. Its purpose is to reinforce and raise awareness about the world’s leaders in clean capitalism, identifying top global firms most willing and adept to deal with key social and environmental factors they face in everyday operations. The Global 100 is announced annually at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Global 100 uses a two-step methodology. First, companies from the starting universe (comprising all global mid and large cap stocks numbering approximately 4,000) are screened according to their sustainability disclosure practices, financial health, product types and recent legal payouts. Those companies that remain are then assessed on 12 key performance indicators which include productivity in energy, carbon, water and waste, as well as employee turnover, amongst others. More information can be found at: www.global100.org and www.corporateknights.com/global100 .
For years, CDL has successfully achieved its financial objectives while concurrently fulfilling its corporate citizenry responsibilities through the Triple Bottom Line approach of balancing financial performance with long-term environmental and social targets such as championing green building in Singapore and through its signature programmes committed to helping the needy in society, enhancing youth development and promoting the arts. These combined efforts have made CDL the first Singapore company recognised on three sustainability benchmarks – the FTSE4Good Index Series since 2002, the Global 100 since 2010 and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes since 2011.
In Singapore, CDL is the most accorded private property developer with over 60 Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark awarded properties to date. Additionally, in 2011, CDL was the first and only recipient of the prestigious BCA Green Mark Platinum Champion Award and has remained the sole private developer to receive the BCA Built Environment Leadership Platinum Award. In 2008, it was the first winner of the inaugural BCA Green Mark Champion Award.
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